Negative effects of technology

Teenagers’ lives revolve around technologically advanced items in the world. Technology is advancing every minute of every day. It is rare that a household does not contain at least one technologically advanced product. Throughout the last decade, technology has created things that people 30 years ago would have never even imagined. These items start from as little as headphones to cell phones to computers to even 3D TVs. Technology has a negative impact in teenagers’ lives.

This will be proven by taking a look at how technology interferes with teenagers academics, how technology creates a social barrier and how technology makes eenagers lazy and get health problems. Technology interferes with teenagers academics. When teenagers’ play games or use other sources of technology, sometimes they get carried away and postpone their homework time or end up not finishing it. For example, when a teenager has to hand in an assignment the next day, he might intend to use Facebook for an hour but end up procrastinating for many hours and fail to complete the assignment.

Technology sometimes takes away a teenager’s ability to complete their homework to their fullest mental capacity. For instance, when a teenager talks on their cell phone ntil late at night, he might try finishing his homework while talking or after. This might result in the teenager not receiving their desired mark because the teenager might have been distracted and was unable to focus on their homework. Technology can also become an addiction to the point that a teenager starts skipping school.

An example of this was a couple of year ago, a 15 year old boy by the name of Brandon Crisp ran away from home and later died, after his parents took away his Xbox 360 because he would skip school and play Call of Duty 4 all day, resulting in homework ot being finished. This shows that an addiction in technology could actually affect a teenager emotionally and in the worst case lead up to death. Due to the innovation of new computer technology, teenagers’ writing skills have become poor. Teenagers’ use slang terms in their instant messaging (MSN,yahoo, skype) or even when they text each other.

Teenagers’ started using this in their everyday writing and sometime even brought it to their school work. For example on MSN, a teenager spells the word “what” as “wat” and they sometimes use these slang words in their essays by accident. Teenagers are using the internet as a source of help but in a negative way. Teenagers are cheating from the internet by plagiarizing someone’s work and claiming it is their work. By stealing someone else’s work, teenagers are not doing themselves good. Now a days teenagers can copy and paste a whole essay from the internet or even pay a website to write their essay.

Phones have also been a source of cheating during tests. By putting notes on your phone and cheating, teenagers are only cheating themselves. Tests and quizzes are done to test students’ knowledge, not to impress the teacher by cheating and getting a good mark. Technology negatively impacts teenagers’ academics. When teenagers use technology they create a social barrier between each other. Teenagers have many ways to interact with people on the internet such as Facebook, Skype, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, etc. This nas made people less likely to go out and socialize with people.

Back in the day, when none of these new technologies were invented, the only way to converse with new people and learn about them was to meet them in person. These days many teenagers make friends online through their friends. When teenagers meet new people online, they are less likely to feel omfortable talking to them if they met in person. With the use of new technology such as instant messengers, teenagers can get blackmailed easily and lose their friends. For instance, when Susan hates Sandy and somehow Susan figures out Sandys MSN login and goes on her account and tells Sandys friends bad things about them.

Right away one of Sandys best friends tell her on MSN that their not best friends anymore, and she approaches Sandy the next morning telling her that she will not be forgiven. This shows that friends can be lost Just by having instant messenger. When teenagers talk in person they are less likely to lie to each other. On instant messengers, teenagers could lie to each other because the true face cannot be seen online and thus lies are possible. Some teenagers tend to talk a lot of garbage online and create drama but in person they do not have the guts to talk garbage or start fghts.

Technology creates a social barrier within a family because with these technological advanced items, families do not get enough social time. When typical teenagers arrive home from school, they spend most of their spare time on the computer, television, phone, gaming system etc. When parents go home from work, they usually spend most of their time of the television or computer etc. Back in the day, a family eating at the dinner table together was a source of enjoyment because interacting with people was the way to have fun.

But now with the new technologically advanced devices, family members eat at their own convenience unless it is an occasion. Another factor in the cutback of family time is parents sometimes bring their workplace projects home to work on. For example when a father works at a computer company and brings his project home to works on; he is sually occupied for the night. Parents are occupied after coming home from work and the kids are busy with homework or using advanced devices, as a result minimal family time is found. Back in the day, teenagers used to go out with friends, play outdoor games, play sports etc.

With these new technologically advanced items out there, teenagers rarely go out to play with their friends, its more like playing video games at home, watching television or browsing the internet. Technology has created a social barrier between teenagers. Technology has made teenagers lazier and gain health problems. Technology has made teenagers live the life at home but get lazier. Couple year ago, teenagers would go to watch a movie at the theaters because it was 3D. Teenagers can stay at home now and watch 3D movies with the release of 3D TVs and home theatre systems.

With the release of the Nintendo Wii couple year ago, teenagers purchased it to stay healthy. This shows that teenagers are getting lazier because they do not want to enjoy the fresh air and exercise but exercise on a game. When PlayStation came out with the PS3, teenagers went and bought the system because it has free online play and access to the internet. Teenagers can sit back and use the internet on the PS3 instead of using the internet on the computer, thus making teenagers lazy. Technology has made people gain health problems.

Acquiring health problems could be from sitting on the computer for a long period of time to even watching television tor a long period ot time. For example when teenagers use computers, their body posture might not be correct and thus sitting in an incorrect posture for long periods of time could lead up to body stiffness and eye issues. Since technology makes teenagers lazy, teenagers tend to eat Junk food while he plays ames or watches television. This results in teenagers getting fat and getting more health issues. Teenagers have gained health problems and became lazier because of technology.

Technology negatively impacts teenagers’ lives. With the new technological devices teenagers are easily distracted which interferes with their studies. Technology has influenced teenagers to socialize on the internet rather than socializing in person which creates a social barrier between teenagers. With the release of new technological devices, technology makes teenagers lazy and increases the chances of acquiring health problems. New technologies are being created every day but that only mean more negative aspects of technology are increasing.

Everyday an average teenager spends up to 8 hours on electronic devices, which is more than 56 hour in one week (Schulten). How much is too much? Technology is advancing every minute of everyday. New phones, computers and other electronic devices are improving and outshining last year’s or even last weeks devices. Teens are obsessing over having the newest and best phone, computer or ‘pod. Since teens are using technology devices everyday, they are beginning to isolate themselves from amily and friends while limiting their communications skills.